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Re: Obsecenity and education
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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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Mr Sabhlok,
Firstly, thank you for the insightful criticisms of my previous post.
"the jury is still out, in terms of who gains what from education (i.e.,
whether it is a private or a public good, whether it has any positive
externalities which outweigh the massive taxation it entails)"
You question the positive externalities of education. Well, let's have a
look at some of the hugely damaging negative externalities of mass
illiteracy and ignorance.
Illiteracy condems the vast majority of India's workforce to a crushing
cycle of low productivity and low wages. This, in turn, limits potential tax
recipts from both employers (lower productivity = lower profits) and workers
(lower productivity = lower income).
'Basic education is also a catalyst of social change...the spread of
education helps to overcome the traditional inequalities of caste, class and
gender, just as the removal of these inequalities contributes to the spread
of education' - Sen
Education increases scrutiny of officials and politicians on a local and
national level. Educated citizens, aware of thier rights, are empowered to
push for greater accountability and transparency from local government. This
grass-roots pressure is, I would contend, more likely to succesfully combat
graft and corruption than any top-down initiative.
Education spending should be seen as *investment* not simply as expenditure.
***
>From the IPI manifesto:
Education:
...Huge expenditures, and the latest information technology techniques, will
be promoted in this sector through both public and private enterprise.
'The latest information technology techniques' are clearly innappropriate to
the needs of most Indians. We need blackboards and books, not flashy (and
very expensive) computers.
***
>6% of the Gross Domestic Product would be targeted for being spent on
>education by the
>nation. As far as possible, parents shall bear the responsibility of
>educating their children.
>Various forms of support will be made available to those unable to afford
>education of their
>meritorious but poor children, such as need-based loans to attend
>institutions of higher
> learning."
Sorry, but I believe that the wishy-washy language used here - support,
needbased loans - sidestep the crux of the issue. In my humble opinion,
India needs, as a matter of urgency, a compulsory, universal and high
quality primary education system.
Part of the reason for past failiures in government education provision has
been the low priority attatched to it. This has led to little or no scrutiny
of officials on all levels. The government should pubicly declare that
education is their Number One priority.
We must kick-start a virtous cycle of parents expectations and power
increasing, leading to better teaching and less corruption, leading to
better education for pupils, leading to an increase in the population's
expectations and power, etc.
How do we get this?
-Higher salaries for primary school teachers, to attract able and commited
professionals, and raise the job status.
-Huge investment in infrastructure - all children should have a school
within easy walking distance.
-Schools to provide all necessary equipment and uniforms to pupils, free of
charge.
-Free, substantial school meals for all pupils.
-Tackle teacher truancy:
-Unannounced inspections - if the teacher is not up to standard, instant
dismissal
-Make teachers directly accountable to parents - if a majority of the
parents sign a petition of 'no confidence' in a teacher, instand dismissal.
Sure all this will cost money. So be it. I favour a radical increase in
government investment in education.
Sincerely,
Richard Parr
>From: "Dr. Sanjeev Sabhlok" <sanjeev@sbhlokcity.com>
>Reply-To: debate@indiapolicy.org
>To: <debate@indiapolicy.org>
>Subject: Obsecenity and education
>Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 18:20:38 -0800 (PST)
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>"Richard Parr" <rjparr@hotmail.com> said:
> >"Government schools, colleges and universities shall be abolished"
> >
> >This is, frankly, an obscene suggestion. The government has a fundamental
> >obligation to provide the basic human right of education. Every single
> >developed country in the world has a state education system. Education is
> >immensly valuable in its own right, but also with respect to raising
>labour
> >productivity and efficiency.
> >
> >Even in purely economic terms, high stste spending on education makes
>sense.
> >
> >Left to the market alone, the poorest (who make up such a huge proportion
>of
> >India's population) will be denied acces to this vital resource.
> >
> >The single biggest action the Indian government can take to facilitate
>rapid
> >economic growth would be to provide free, universal education.
> >
> >This can only come about through a significant rise in government
>spending
> >on Education - if needs be, at the cost of other fiscal commitments (eg
>the
> >military).
> >
> >Richard Parr
>
>Dear Mr. Parr, Without entering into the merit of your claim that: "The
>government has a fundamental obligation to provide the basic human right of
>education." - on which, if you kindly permit me to state, the jury is still
>out, in terms of who gains what from education (i.e., whether it is a
>private or a public good, whether it has any positive externalities which
>outweigh the massive taxation it entails), I see education as a management
>issue.
>
>If you would kindly move beyond your rhetoric and tell me what you want to
>see (i.e., HOW will anyone provide real education to the people), I would
>be grateful.
>
>2nd, please be humble enough to read the entire section on education in the
>IPI manifesto. This is my 100th request in this direction. I reproduce its
>relevant portions since you and others find it so difficult to download and
>read it, and criticize some imaginary apparitions.
>
>Expenditure:
>-----------
>
>"(a) 6% of the Gross Domestic Product would be targeted for being spent on
>education by the
>nation. As far as possible, parents shall bear the responsibility of
>educating their children.
>Various forms of support will be made available to those unable to afford
>education of their
>meritorious but poor children, such as need-based loans to attend
>institutions of higher
> learning."
>
>i.e., I do not deny that education costs money and we should spend on it as
>a nation.
>
>OUR joint endeavour. But only IPI's solution (i.e., moving away from
>mantras)
>---------------------------------------------
>
> >The single biggest action the Indian government can take to facilitate
>rapid
> >economic growth would be to provide free, universal education.
>
>While endorsing the underlying need to provide education, let us go beyond
>rhetoric. You want IAS officers to provide education by directly appointing
>teachers. I say, they CAN'T. The mammoth system is not only unmanageable,
>the distance between parents and teachers is too vast. All incentives are
>distorted.
>
>We need a solution where the tax payer's money is rightly spent, where
>teachers are accountable, where parents can fix school timings, and other
>such minor things. It appears that to you only the GOAL is important and
>sufficient to feel good about, having articulated it a thousand times,
>while other things such as the MEANS to achieve it is not of any interest,
>beng too minor and 'best left to IAS officers' like me. I claim : you trust
>us too much. Unless citizens start to think, and participate in
>SOLUTION-FINDING, we are dead as a nation. This mammoth bureaucracy - a
>legacy of the British - is an old Ambassador car (or Austin) that has worn
>out and has no mind (engine power) left of its own.
>
>The methods on the IPI manifesto involve:
>
>a) direct accountability of teachers by parents and panchayats.
>
>b) existing funding PLUS more of schools based on the distance from big
>cities, i.e., incentive to teachers to go to REMOTE villages to seek
>employment. (Please please please read the IPI manifesto again!!! It talks
>of abolition of government schools but NOT of government funding)
>
>I urge you to become interested in the details of THE HOWS of provision of
>schooling, and to not chant 'education,' 'education,' like a broken record,
>hoping that gods will then mysteriously provide for it.
>
>BTW, I am not here talking of the Friedman voucher system in India. That is
>the ultimate solution, but at a much later stage. I am talking for today's
>India: show me how to bring these lakhs of EXISTING truant teachers
>employed by government to school and to involve the parents in the
>education of their children. That will be enough for India at this stage.
>
>I hope my efforts to persuade have not offended you nor found to be
>'obscene.'
>
>Let us work together on SOLUTIONS, and move away from rhetoric.
>
>Here's to SOLUTIONS!!
>
>Sanjeev
>
>PS: I will be spending about 2 weeks in one of the poorest regions of India
>next month (February), in Jhargram region of Midnapur, West Bengal. I hope
>to visit some schools and report back the condition of education in rural
>Bengal.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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